April 15, 2014 — In addition to this week's NewsBreak(s), the editors have compiled the Weekly News Digest, featuring stories from the week just past that you should know about. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.

“This is a tremendous achievement for GPO’s digital transformation efforts and establishing FDsys as the trusted source for authentic, published Government information,” says Davita E. Vance-Cooks, public printer of the United States and the GPO’s CEO. “GPO will continue to add content to FDsys making it the most comprehensive information repository serving the information needs of Congress, Federal agencies, and the public.”

Park Place Technologies offers data center hardware maintenance to companies such as IBM, HP, and Dell. Cycom’s technology solutions serve vertical healthcare markets, as well as commercial and industrial clients.

Cycom, which is based in Canada, will help Park Place Technologies expand its service and support across North America.

Source: Park Place Technologies

Random House Ebooks Now Available From EBSCO

EBSCO Information Services now offers more than 30,000 frontlist and popular backlist ebooks from Random House on its EBSCO eBooks and Audiobooks platform. These fiction and nonfiction ebooks, from all Random House imprints and publishing groups, will be included in EBSCO’s Best-Sellers, New Releases, and Youth Award Winners collections.

“Having the best-selling titles from Random House available in EBSCO’s comprehensive and powerful research experience [EBSCOhost] makes for a good combination,” says Ken Breen, EBSCO eBooks and Audiobooks’ VP of product management. “It will allow librarians to offer their patrons an easy way to access the award-winning titles from Random House that they are looking for while increasing the usage and visibility of the library’s entire collection.”

The Random House titles join about 600,000 ebooks and audiobooks available to library patrons for downloading to mobile devices. Libraries can acquire these ebooks without paying markups or fees, which facilitates cost-effective collection development.

Source: EBSCO Information Services

Baker & Taylor Rolls Out Axis 360 Upgrades

Baker & Taylor released upgrades to its Axis 360 digital media circulation platform that are designed to enhance its user experience and visual appeal, as well as update its site administration and collection management tools.

Key upgrades include more display and navigation flexibility for a library’s collection via the Magic Wall, the online showcase for a library’s collection; design flexibility that allows libraries to create and manage Magic Wall presentations; enhanced browse-by-subject options that now have less text; and a streamlined administration interface with new user management options, reports, alerts, and other tools.

“[T]he improvements to Axis 360 come from listening closely to our library partners,” according toGeorge Coe, Baker & Taylor’s CEO and president. The company held focus group meetings where library customers could provide feedback and requests for upgrades.

“Axis 360 users now have an even more engaging and inviting tool to discover digital materials, and libraries have additional control over their library users’ experience and added information to be effective managers of their digital collections,” says Coe.

Source: Baker & Taylor

ProQuest and J.P. Morgan Launch Business Research Platform

ProQuest and J.P. Morgan teamed up to create the J.P. Morgan Research platform to help business students and faculty access J.P. Morgan’s company and economic research on 3,400 corporations around the world.

Information includes trend, forecast, and macro analyses; 1,500 monthly J.P. Morgan reports, including equities and economics research reports dating from 2011 to the present; and various archived items, all of which have a 7-day embargo before being added to J.P. Morgan Research.

“ProQuest’s teamwork with J.P. Morgan combines the highest quality analysis and makes it available on a platform that allows MBA students, business faculty and other researchers to reliably analyze companies and industries quickly, easily, and more thoroughly than ever before,” says Jeff Wilensky, ProQuest’s VP of information solutions.

Source: ProQuest

Pew Report Notes Increase in Online Information Theft

The Pew Research Centerreleased survey results that show an increase in the number of internet users who have had personal information, such as a Social Security number, credit card information, or bank account information stolen as a result of online activities (18% of respondents, up from 11% last year). The largest percentage of increases occurred among respondents aged 18–29 and aged 50–64.

Social network and email hacking affected the same percentage of people as last year, with 21% of respondents from 2013 and 2014 saying that an online account had been compromised.

Pew surveyed 1,002 adults in January, before the discovery of the Heartbleed bug that might increase these percentages for next year. Of the respondents, 820 were internet users. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 4%.

Source: Pew Research Center

SIIA's Court Victory Upholds Informant's Privacy

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announced its victory in a 9-year court case against Solers, Inc. The legal dispute arose over the identity of an anonymous informant who reported Solers’ alleged software copyright infringement to SIIA. Solers tried to sue the informant for defamation, but SIIA refused to reveal his or her identity.

The judge finally ruled that because Solers did not lose money after the informant alerted SIIA of the alleged infringement, it would not be allowed to learn the informant’s identity. The judge dismissed the defamation suit and also found that the informant’s report to SIIA was unreliable.

“SIIA will stop at nothing to protect the identities of those who report software and content piracy to us in confidence,” says Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA’s general counsel and SVP of intellectual property. “The Court’s Order hands SIIA an important victory and vindicates the rights of whistleblowers. For SIIA, this case has always been about protecting the informant’s identity and, after a long nine-year fight, we achieved that goal.”